Equipment Review

ABD and Prairie Path Cycles have been gracious sponsors this year, and I wanted to review 2 key pieces of equipment that I have had the opportunity to ride from the Prairie Path cycling shop.

Trek Madone 5.2

I have been racing on Treks since I started racing back in 2007. Therefore I come in with some bias. But I like the saying of "if it's not broken, don't fix it." Which is kinda of ironic, because I have good, and bad luck with Treks breaking in the past. As I stand today though, everything Trek related is fully functional and allowing me the ability to race hard and hunt for prize money. This shows that Trek really does stand by their product and their lifetime warranty on frames, which isn't just a marketing ploy.

The current bike I am on now from Prairie Path Cycles (PPC) is the Trek Madone 5.2 which comes equipped with the new shimano ultegra components and my wheels are bontrager Aeoulous 6.5 with a powertap (my wheels from the last 2 seasons). Some of the first things I first noticed about the new ride is how clean and hidden everything is. No more cables routed outside of the frame, collecting dirt and debris, and getting the inside of the housing all gunked up. This is huge for a racing bike since most problems come from shifting. So the less entry points for possible contaminants, the better. It's also very good for aerodynamics, and it just looks nice. Trek moved the integrated speed sensor from the fork to the non-drive side chain stay which makes sense, since now you can run a cadence magnet from the crank as well. Frames are always getting lighter and stiffer, and this one is no exception. The ergonomics of the new ultegra shifters is far ahead of the previous ones, but the one down side is that they limited the pull only 2 shifts per lever actuation. This is not that big of a deal, but for the first couple of weeks before I figured this out, I thought it was broken.

Overall, the 5.2 is the nicest looking, fastest, cleanest, lightest and overall coolest bike I have ridden, and it races like a dream!

Bontrager R3 racing tires

So in the tire department, I am not a biased man. I have raced and ridden many different brands, and so I have my favorites. Since the R3 is a racing tire, I will compare it to my other favorite racing tire, the Michelin Pro Race. The R3 is soft and supple like a racing tire should be, so like any good race tire, it should only be used for racing. This is because it picks up all kinds of debris on the road surface, and wears out very quickly. I had a string of flats in the TOAD series, and didn't find the tiny piece of glass in my tire until the 3rd tube puncture. It rides well though and I felt like I can stick the corners with it as well.

As compared to my other favorite, the Michelin pro race, I would say the Pro Race comes out slightly ahead for 2 reasons. It seems that it does not wear out as quickly, and it feels a bit more secure when really leaning the bike over in the tight corners. In all though, the R3 is an excellent choice, in a very subjective area of bike racing that is tire selection.

While we are on the subject of tire choice though, I do want to point out another great Bontrager product, which are the hardcase training tires. As far as training tires go, I have been riding these for more than 2 years, and have yet to flat. They literally roll over anything and are extremely puncture resistant!

This coming weekend are the Winfield criterium races (twilight and ABR championships), and are both fantastic crit courses, so come on out!

Racing Update

I think I would like to keep my five sentence writing limit to emails.

And so, I'm currently in the middle of Superweek, sitting at my gracious host's house in Mequon, WI, just north of Milwaukee. The season has been going fairly well and I am happy with some of my performances. Here are some quick notes about the major races I have been doing.

Joe Martin stage race at the beginning of May was exactly what I needed to bring my form around. It started with a challenging TT the first day in which I rode the same exact time as the year before. The racing after that must have been much faster than previous years, because I was in the pain cave both road days and got time cut the 2nd to last day, so was not able to compete in the final crit on Sunday. I still don't know if the racing was just faster this year, or if I was slower, or maybe a combo of both. The previous 2 years I finished the entire series, but unlike those years, the second road day was completely blown apart, which could show the difficulty of the new course and how teams rode it. I did get some great training in at least, and the whole week the weather was awesome.

The memorial day races were again good for my form, and I was consistent each day (minus the snake, which I still cannot figure out). Unfortunately I kept finishing a few places out of the money, which always stings a bit.

Tour of Galena brought some fantastic racing to hilly Illinois (I never would have thought) and I look forward to this race growing over the years. When I first rolled into town, the first thing it reminded me of was the rolling terrain of the Ardennes of southern Belgium, when I did the tour of Liege there in 2008. We also had a decent squad there both days, which was great since we were able to ride in support of Ben. After he smoked the time trial the first day, we were able to set him up well in the road race, in which he crushed and won. The final day crit saw many attacks but Ben did a great job of hanging tough and staying safe while the rest of us tried to keep everything together, and he took the overall!

The T.O.A.D. series again brought some very organized and fast racing to the Milwaukee area. This is definitely the race series of the future in the Midwest. I rode almost all the days (10 of the 11), finished in the money some and again enjoyed some fantastic weather. If they can add one or 2 more road days, this will series will be perfect.

The next 2 weeks off consisted of a trip around lake Michigan with Kim for a 4th of July vacation, which was Pure Michigan™ fun.

Now it's back to Superweek. The dynamic of the Superweek series this year has been different than in years past, with smaller field sizes and not quite as much power it seems in the field. Regardless, the racing has still been fast and it's great to be able to race so much in July, so close to home!

The first day of Superweek at Beverly I saw the winning break roll off the front, but was able to make a 1 lap bridge to make contact. After 3 more guys joined us, it was 9 total and we eventually lapped the field. It was a good thing, because I fell apart in the last 5 laps, getting dropped from the field and almost lost my lap lead. Luckily another rider helped pace me the final few laps so I retained my 9th place position and I kindly paid him for his services from my winnings.

Day 2 at the Geneva crit was another great day for ABD, as we did the ole 1-2 punch with Freund countering my solo move and lapping the field with Chad B. from Texas roadhouse. I know Ryan has been wanting that top step bad and I felt bad that I wasn't able to help lead him out more in the sprint, but my legs were fried and Texas roadhouse has some strong guys.

Richton I was 2nd at last year, so I wanted to do well again. After I missed the first break of 3 that lapped the field, I found myself in no man's land for 1.5 hrs of hard riding in a break with 2 others. It was a very hard way to take 6th place, but I managed.

The Willow Springs road race is a great course, and one that I also did well at last year. I got into an early break of 4 that put a minute into the field, but we were missing a couple key team representatives, so we got chased down. After a slurry of attacks went and got brought back, one finally stuck, but I was absent from it. I managed a 23rd overall, after the break of 10 stayed up the road with a few more hanging in the middle. Ben was with me today as well, but neither of us could manage to pick the right move.

Thursday and Friday took me up to the greater Milwaukee area for 2 races in which i took 24th in both, barely making some $$. The races so far in Wisconsin have seen double the numbers in field size, with the typical Superweek dyanmics of many attacks, and strong breaks getting away. Last night in Brookfield was especially hard, with a course that was both technical with a very long start/finish straightaway that saw very fast speeds. After the initial break of 8 got away the pace went down some, and I missed another large group off the front. Luckily the previous nights winner missed this move as well, and he put a huge bridge in, which I followed to regain contact to this massive group of about 20 riders. We stayed clear of the field, and this group broke in 2 before the finish. I finished in between both groups as I tried to make a late bridge to the first chase, but couldn't quite make the catch.

Downer ave is tonight, which is always a great venue! Oh and Voeckler is a beast.

Also, I wanted to give a huge thanks to the support this year from ABD, Prairie Path Cycles, Mike Farrell and Mike Ebert, and of course as always, my parents and my girlfriend Kim!

fast forward

Almost 4 weeks into the 2011 season, and it has felt really good to be racing again. It was a long winter, and an even longer time since I have updated my progress. So here's the quick flash forward to the present day.

The summer of 2010 I raced a lot, did well in the Superweek series, broke my nose and my bike, raced some more, took 6 weeks off and gained 10 pounds then finally did all sorts of cross training in the winter.

This season I will be racing with ABD (the remnants of the folded Verizon team) and updating my blog a bit differently, trying to follow the guidelines of my new email policy, five.sentenc.es.

Policy broken.

West Branch road race and criterium

This weekend our team drove up north for the 2 day West Branch omnium
(cumulative points race). The Chicago crew took 2 cars up, the
college students getting to leave earlier in the day and us working
folk leaving the city around 7. The 6 HR drive and eastern time zone
got us there around 2am, with a 6am wake up call. I was a little bit
tired the next morning but determined to try and make the most of our
7 person team. The race started with a 35 mile solo break from the gun
by Chris, followed by a lot of really easy riding in the bunch. When
Chris was caught the racing picked up a bit and I tired my hand at
getting a break going. There were a couple of times that I thought we
had the correct combo of riders, but the amateur Bissell guys wanted
no part in actually working together, so we would get pulled back. A
break of 2 finally started putting some time into us and I made a huge
bridge attempt. I pulled one Bissell guy with me, who refused to pull
through, so I put my head down and rode flat out hoping I could reel
them in myself. He sensed when I just starting to tire and jumped
hard. I tried to accelerate but he already had 3 lengths on me and I
was dead. I sat up and got reabsorbed by the group. That would end up
being the winning break. The rest of the race was pretty uneventful
and I attacked once or twice out of shear boredom, and follwed a lot
of very unsuccesful moves. I saved as much as I could for the final
push up the long gradual climb to the finish. It was one long sprint,
if you can even call it that. I had no legs to take advantage of the
good position I had going into the base of it and Seth and I creeped
across the line for 14th and 15th.

Day 2 brought a bit better fortune as our team was determined to make
good of our long trip to the north. The temperature was in the 80s,
with a mild breeze, on a course that was half technical, half long
straightaways. I bairly missed the first threatening break of the
day, and found myself on the front pulling hard to bring them back. I
signaled for help from the team and luckily got some first from Greg
Christensen ( Pabther) who was determined to bring the duo back. When
they were finally in striking distance one guy attacked hard and I
followed suit. Quickly we had a break of 3, then 4, then 5. We worked
well together from the 20 min mark until the final few laps. With 4 to
go our group of 5 could see a bridging group of 4 in our rearview
mirror so we started to increase the pace. 2 of their 4 were catching
us with 2 laps to go and right as they were I put in a half hearted
attack to try and keep our group at 5 instead of 7. They eventually
did catch us and we went into the bell lap 7 strong. Half way around a
guy made a hard jump and no one followed right away. Then another went
and everyone was all over it. I sat third wheel going into the last
corner, with one guy out front poised to win. It was a long headwind
sprint so I waited until I sensed guys coming up on my sides and then
started my sprint. I came around the first guy and needed about 1 more
meter to catch the second one. Second in the sprint for 3rd overall on
the day. The rest of the peloton was setting up for the sprint and
Nick and Henry would take 1-2 in the field sprint for 14 and 15 (there
were more people in no mans land between the break).

In all it was a decent weekend, and our team is getting stronger every
weekend. It was also very fun staying at Nicks parents log cabin on a
lake; if only I would have brought my fishing pole!

Next weekend is 4 days of memorial day racing which should be a good
timer if we continue on our track of improvement.

Barry Roubaix and C.O.U.G.A.R

Last weekend was the kickoff for my 2010 season.  It began Saturday morning South of Grand Rapids MI at the Barry Roubaix (Killer) Gravel Road Race.  The course consisted of 2 x 32 mile loops making 65 miles of gravel, some pavement roads, and a touch of some wide mountain bike trails.  I raced on my cross bike, which was the right call in my opinion, but there was a good mix of mountain bikes and cross bikes.  We rolled out in one large group with a 3 mile neutral start and then the race started.  I hadn't done this race before so I had no idea what to expect.  It was good until we made a left turn onto the mountain bike trail with lots of sand patches, and guys started falling down all around me.  I got caught up behind some of them and had to dismount and run before it cleared enough to get back on.  I spent the next few miles chasing back the lead group, but eventually caught up, which is good because that would have been a long day not in the lead group.  There were about 20-25 of us in this group, slowly losing riders as the race went on.   Two guys rolled off the front early in lap one and would stay away until the finish, putting 5 minutes into our group.  The rest of the lap was mainly good gravel roads and nothing too technical.  The race was pretty uneventful the rest of lap 1.  Lap 2 I tried a move off the front and one guy came with me.  We were building a sizable gap when we both took a wrong turn into a driveway, and then proceeded to get caught.  I navigated the mountain bike trail better this time, placing myself second wheel going into it.  I was going to try a move late in the second lap, but by this time I was just hanging on.  My legs were so trashed and my body hurt from all the vibrations of riding off road for 3+ hours. In the sprint I tried to give my future teammate Jimmi a leadout, but quickly realized that would be hard too do with both hamstrings cramping up.  I limped across the line for a 13th place overall. I really liked this race, but the finish and one intersection out on the course were not nearly policed well enough and it was downright dangerous with cars.  Thanks to Jeff and his family for the pizza and the place to stay!

"Oh look, Ryan is Attacking again, better chase"

Sunday's race was part of the C.O.U.G.A.R. Series (Chicagoland Omnium Using Great Area Racetracks), awesome acronym I know.  It was at the Joliet Autobahn country club, which is a formula one type car race course.  I did a race like this last year in Austin with Colt when I did my training week in Texas.  I like racing on these types of venues because the turns are nice and gradual and the wind usually plays a factor.  The race started fairly low keyed, but then Mike Ebert (ABD/Verizon), put in a big effort and lined out the whole field.  When he pulled off Ryan Freund (ABD/Verizon) put in another huge effort and took 7 guys with him, including me.  That was the race, as our group of 8 started to rotate immediately and build our lead.  We worked fairly well together after everyone calmed down a bit and the gap grew even more.  Ryan put in a couple of attacks, the biggest one with 7 to go, but we slowly reeled him back.  I tried a few times as well, but nothing really stuck.  Then with about 3 to go, a guy slowly drifted off the front and built a gap on our group.  Our lack of interest of chasing him down let him build a lead that eventually he would hold for the win.  With 2 laps to go a XXX guy did the same thing, this time a bit more deliberately than the previous guy.  Again with no one willing to chase he would hold out for second.  The final lap was pretty slow and after a few attempts by Ryan to get away, I went for it with about 400m to go.  My jump was decent, but the last 30 yards my left hamstring was in a knot and I got nipped at the line as I was basically coasting to the finish, not able to pedal.  

It's been a long weekend for my hamstrings.  I need to stretch.

The Moped Build

The Motorized Pedacycle (aka Moped) has been something of great interest to me since I got my first up close look at one in college. There were always a few people riding them around campus, and I loved the rough and vintage look, and the fact that they had pedals! So keeping in theme with this blog being about bicycles, in their countless forms, I think this passes the criteria check.

The story of the moped build started in early December 2009. Learning my friend from work Matt Bengy was a moped fanatic, and after me telling him about my desire to build one, it began. There is not a whole lot of actual bicycle riding to do outside, in the dead of winter, in Chicago, on weekdays after work, so I set aside some time each week to work on the moped at Matt's garage. This consisted first of making a complete parts list of everything that I would need to build a moped, from the bottom up, then acquiring. Matt's garage was pretty much a shop combined with a moped graveyard, so there was a multitude of used parts to utilize which helped tremendously in curbing the overall cost of the build. About half the components I used were used, and half I bought new. The new stuff was all purchase from www.treatland.tv (which by the way is a hilarious website, that does not actually having anything to do with TV) I did want to put a new engine on it, so almost all the internal workings of the engine were purchased new from treatland, and then built into a used engine casing.

Below is the parts list and a slide show of some pictures I took of the build. It runs awesome, and tops out at about around 35 mph. Hopefully with some more fine tuning this summer I can break 40mph! I will include a video sometime soon.

Oh and another reason why mopeds are an integral part of bicycle racing, and why I like them; Motor pacing anyone?

Parts List
Frame
Internal Gas tank
Petcock
Wheels (Front and Rear tubes and tires)
Rear wheel tensioners
Brake shoes
Pedals and crank arms
Fork
Fork Bearings
Seat
Handlebars
Levers
Hand throttle
Start Lever

Brake Levers
Grips
Front Fender
2Stroke Engine
bearings and seals
Kit
Crankshaft

Clutch
Clutch Bell
carburetor
intake
air filter
Pedal Chain
tensioner
Drive Chain
Flywheels
Stator Plate (w/flywheel w/ignition coil)
Head Light and Tail light
Electrical Wiring
Head Lamp
Kill Switch
Tail/Running Light
Cables and housing
Brake
Throttle
Starting
Kickstand
Exhaust Pipe
Rack

The MUSE background music is because I just went to their concert. Which was awesome by the way.

Bicycle Repair

It's been about 2.5 months since I resumed my training from my real off-season .  October was a great time to start catching up on some neglected repair and maintenance of bicycles that I let go of over the crazy summer months of racing.  One thing I finally finished was to clean up my mountain bike which had been dormant for several years.  I had only riden it maybe one time with Rider at Pandapas in Blacksburg my Senior year.  After cleaning the drive train and frame and making sure the shifting and brakes worked, I took it out for a spin and quickly realized that both the front fork and body shocks were toast.  The body shock was not holding any air pressure and I think the springs in the fork were dead.  I intially brought it to the shop in Plainfield to get a quote on repair versus replacement for both shocks.  They talked with Fox(float shock) and RockShox(fork shock) and it came back that it was going to be way outside my budget for this bike. 

 

So plan B:  I looked up the service manual for the body shock and found a replacement seal kit for it online.  After a friend from work and I took it apart with some tools at his place, we noticed the air sleeve was damaged along with the seals being worn out.  Luckily, after I called Fox, I was able to buy a replacement air sleeve as well.  I came in well under budget and now the bike is ride-able again, although the front fork could still use some new springs.

 

If your ever thinking about selling that old bike, or putting alot of money into it, give a good look at the service manuals and call up the manufacturer for some replacement parts first.  It'll save quite a bit of money, and is a good learning experience to understand how to properly service your bike. 

 

I am still in the process of getting the 4 bikes I own, (Mtn, Cross, Road and Commuter) in perfect working condition, with spending minimal money.  This way I can have them all in great  riding condition so I can take any one of them out for a spin, whenever I want, without having to worry if they will work or not.

 

When I started riding full time a little over 3 years ago, I really didn't have any clue about bike maintenance, and how important it was to keep up with it.  Now I have that knowledge and recognize the importance of proper maintenance, not only for having a finely tuned racing bike, but to have any of your bikes work as good as they did when they first rolled of the showroom floor.  Being proactive with with preventative maintenanceis key and will help keep your investment keep it's worth for years to come.  I'm looking forward to having all my bikes work like new.